1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an accessory used with playing cards, and more particularly to a self-supporting playing card holder that may be selectively folded to a collapsed, more portable structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The origin of playing cards is the subject of several competing theories, although an origin in China sometime between the seventh and tenth centuries is presently the most widely supported. Introduction to Europe followed in the latter half of the thirteenth century, with playing cards first reaching America with Columbus, and becoming firmly established with the arrival of the English, French, and Dutch colonists.
However introduced, playing cards and card games have proven to be extremely popular with all social classes. There in fact have been periods of time when card playing has been condemned by both governments and churches, in response to "gaming fevers" and their attendant reckless wagering practices and cruelly strict codes of honor. In more modern times, the social and intellectual prestige of games such as contract bridge, combined with the dwindling practice of gambling, have considerably lessened the legal and moral objections to card playing.
Whether by rank or combination, virtually all of the modern card games require players to place the playing cards in an organized pattern, according to the specific game rules. Further, in most games a player's cards are known only to that player, until exposed in conformity with the rules of that particular game. This secrecy requires the player to manage the playing cards in a manner that permits ready access to the cards during the play of the game, yet visually restricts other players from prematurely learning the value of the playing card holdings. The traditional manner of accomplishing these tasks is for the player to hold the cards in one hand, with the card values made visible to the player by the technique of carefully overlapping the card edges. For card games using more than one card deck, or for players suffering from an impaired functionality of the hands due to age or disease, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage one's hand of playing cards.
A number of solutions have been proposed to permit the display of a player's cards without disclosure to the other game participants. In Carbone, et al., (U.S. Pat. No. 4,266,771), a flexible playing card rack is provided, having an elongated container with a narrow opening therein to permit the partial insertion of the playing cards. A pouch is provided by the card table cover of Parmele, (U.S. Pat. No. 2,772,886), and it provides ample room to distribute a hand of playing cards along one side of a card table. This distributional space is obtained at the cost of portability.
The card holders of Boeppler (U.S. Pat. No. 1,508,082), Wedderburn (U.S. Pat. No. 805,895), and Ritter (U.S. Pat. No. 1,410,959) all may be collapsed into a more personal-sized structure for ease in transport and storage. The Mah Jongg playing-tile support of Boeppler is formed by folding a rectangular sheet of fibrous material, such as cardboard, along longitudinal score lines. Wedderburn and Ritter also make use of score lines, however, unlike the inserted tab supports used by Boeppler, Wedderburn and Ritter rely upon specialized structures formed in the holder to maintain the holder in its deployed position, (longitudinal ribs "C" in Wedderburn and the stay 11 in Ritter). The structures designed to hold and display the playing cards, (or tiles), range from the ledge of Boeppler and Wedderburn to the "pocket" of Ritter, Carbone, et al., and Parmele.
These various playing card holders are manufactured out of material that is sturdy, yet inexpensive, for example the cardboard of Ritter and the hard plastic of Carbone, et al. Additionally, the majority of the card holders call for a flexible or foldable structure, with a few having multiple panels that may be folded in a certain manner to form the playing card stand, such as the triangular tile-holder of Boeppler. However, while hinged cardboard panels and flaps to retain playing cards have been available, such as shown in Ritter, their compactness when collapsed leaves a great deal to be desired. A bulky holder is inconvenient to be carried around by the card player. Additionally, besides not folding into a compact configuration, the holders of Wedderburn, Boeppler and Babcock have no mechanism to maintain the holder in its collapsed configuration.